The jasmine flower diplay tea from adagio is great and is really a conversation piece as is the red bloom. I just personlly like the taste of the jasmine bloom better. The white peony and jasmine bloom would really compliment each other well I would think.
Your menu sounds very posh. Should go over good I should imagine- lucky people!

With the first course you have sencha and two other greens. For the two other greens, I would suggest perhaps a gyokuro or a kukicha, sticking with the Japanese vegetal taste, since you have spinach as the food item. Make sure you get the sencha premier as it is a much better tea than the sencha overture.

teaspoon wrote:Oooh sounds yummy. One question, though, how strong is the jalapeno spread in the second course? Because You wouldn't want to overpower the tea or any other flavors with the heat of the jalapenos...

The spread itself is pretty powerful. But, when placed between two wheat crackers, the combination is fairly mild. There is still a definite heat to it, but it is subdued.

I just figured jalapeno would be a good palate cleanser. Do you think the heat will overpower future tastes rather than cleanse previous ones?

teaspoon wrote:Oh and I think Numi has a white display tea.

I just got a sample of their display teas today. It was $14 for all 9 (one of each) at Whole Foods. After reading the directions, I am a little concerned: apparently, even the white display teas require water at 212 degrees to open up. I'm just not sure what that will do to the white tea itself.

Well, I sampled the white display teas from Numi tonight (I put the green & black off for another time).

I think I was right to be worried about the brewing temperature: none of the white display teas were particularly good representations of white tea. However, a couple of them were drinkable (and even pleasant).

The Flower Jewel is the one I will be serving at my party. It takes like jasmine, and that's all. Just... jasmine. No white tea flavor, but I like jasmine, so I liked this.

The Dragon Lily tasted exactly like perfectly-cooked spinach. I have never before liked the flavor of spinach in a cup, but I found that I enjoyed this because it was perfect and not polluted by other flavors.

As for the Lavender dream, while I would not drink it, my SO did. It had a sharp lavender flavor with spinach notes. I just didn't think that lavender and spinach (however mild) went well together.

Finally, the Starlight Rose is the only one I have nothing nice to say about. It had a spinach flavor that was markedly overcooked, with a very dry aftertaste. It was also the least-graceful bloom in the cup, looking more like a porcupine than a flower. I wouldn't recommend this tea to anyone, unless you are trying to relive bad cooking from your childhood.